Many golfers ‘muscle’ the ball. That’s when they swing the club with force… as if the ball had done something terrible to the golfer. The golfer then has this long lever, moving at forceful fast speeds, and he possibly will over rotate bringing the club too far behind his back causing an arch in the back. This is extreme and unnecessary because the ball has already been hit.

Some golfers concentrate so terribly hard on hitting the ball perfectly that they do that, and then they don’t carry through the ball with consistent force or direction. The club could go anywhere after that… as well as the ball.

Neither are good for your score. Imagine your body is a stiff towel rolled into a cylinder. The entire cylinder rotates back for backswing, but the top half moves about twice as far as the bottom half. Therefore, it is twisted around itself.

For forward swing, the towel rotates forward and the twist untwists itself. It isn’t finished until it goes in the opposite direction. Your body can do this in a consistent speed. No need to force anything. At the top of backswing, there is a brief moment where the special brains (interneurons) in the spinal cord fire automatically and create a speedy forceful contraction to the muscles around the spine. No need to think about killing the ball. Keep your stroke steady through the ball. After you have hit the ball, there will be a deceleration that occurs when the club is parallel to the ground.

Maintaining your speed and plain of your cylinder from start through impact will give you a smooth follow through and finish.

No one who enjoys golf can forget the shaking, squiggling, and weird gyrations of Charles Barkley addressing his ball. We have all seen some disturbing waggles… as if the golfer were performing an ancient mating ritual with the ball.

To avoid the waggles, wiggles, and giggles practice at the range. Perform golf specific exercises to address your specific issues in your body. Think about EVERY part of your swing, your body, your stance, your head position, your abdominals…. at the GYM. Then, leave those thoughts at the GYM. Think about your shots, your strategies, your clubs at the RANGE. Then, leave those thoughts at the range. Football players work out, they practice, they receive instruction and coaching during practice. Then they play a game. They don’t think about the gym or practice drills. When it’s time to golf, golf.

Ok, so most people think situps are the way to improve abdominals. Well, most people would be incorrect! Situps encourage a deep muscle within the hip and pelvis, the psoas (which attaches to the front part of the vertebrae in the low back) to work. That muscle causes your butt to stick out and your abs to fall forward… especially at address. There are many different ways of engaging both the obliques and the transverse abdominals at address. If they are not engaged, your swing center will bob and ooops, there goes your drive. Specifically working those groups in a golf specific manner will improve not only your drive, but how you look performing the drive! Read More…

Golf is a game of leverage. ‘Powering’ the ball by dipping down at downswing and muscling the ball with your arms takes away the pivot, destroys the mechanical advantage, ruins your chance to influence people because your ball is off in the trees, and will end up in a big investment at my Dubrow Physical Therapy office because you just hurt something! Using the advantage of your spinal receptors with spinal rotation causes a firing of your receptors to initiate the muscles of the spine and the core to give you an automatic clean powerful swing…. and it will be straight because your swing center won’t bob. Use leverage, not muscle.